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Daily Archives: November 23, 2010

Rutgers has beaten three straight Division I foes by 15 or more points for the first time since 1977-78. That December, Tom Young’s Scarlet Knights handled Manhattan (91-76), Saint Peter’s (93-55) and Seton Hall (93-78) on the way to a 24-7 record. That’s some good company.

Norfolk State is lousy, but it’s still impressive that RU avoided a letdown and built a 22-point halftime lead. Shooting 6-of-7 from 3-point range and dishing out 13 assists while committing just three turnovers will do that.

The quintessential play of the new-look Scarlet Knights came when Gilvydas Biruta missed the free throw, and point guard James Beatty—all six feet, two inches of him—soared above the crowd to tap the rebound back to the shooter. Beatty then slid over to the right corner, where Biruta swung him the ball for an uncontested 3-pointer. Swish. The sequence illustrated hustle, smarts and unselfishness.

Second straight promising effort by freshman guard Austin Carroll, who scored his first collegiate points by draining a 3-pointer and also handed out three assists.

Still waiting for that breakout, put-your-stamp-on-it game from Dane Miller. He didn’t need it tonight. But he will as the competition gets tougher.

Mike Rice: “It’s a very unselfish team, a very team-oriented group. This team has a little bit of hunger. They want to win, and they want to prove people wrong.”

Rice: “We only did two or three drills after the Miami game. Mike (Coburn) stopped me and said a couple of adjectives I can’t repeat here and said, ‘We’ve only won two games. Let’s do what we have to do to get No. 3.’”

Rice: “Mike Coburn tries his tail off every single day to be prefect in drills. James Beatty works so hard—-he was lifting for an hour-and-a-half before yesterday’s practice. He was the only one in there. Those two get it and J-Mitch (fellow senior Jonathan Mitchell) gets it. We’ve found leaders, that’s for sure.”

Rice on Coburn: “It’s amazing, there was one time when he was dribbling a million miles an hour down the right-hand side and there was a collective gasp from the crowd. I could hear it—they knew Mike was going to jump in the air and do something not very intelligent. He jump-stopped, pivoted and found Austin Carroll for a 3. He’s bought in completely. His game has matured so much. His decisions are what sets him apart.”

Mike Coburn: “Personally these are thigns I always could do, it just really hasn’t come out in the past. I’m being aggressive, playing for the team, sharing the ball . . . We know this is our last go-around at Rutgers, and we want to make the best of it. We’re out there scratching and clawing and fighting even harder and we need everybody to help us win.”

CHECK BACK tomorrow for a Q&A with St. Joe’s coach Phil Martelli about Rice, his former assistant.

Since injuring his ankle in the late stages of Rutgers’ Oct. 16 win over Army, Mohamed Sanu has touched the ball just 23 times (seven rushes for 24 yards, 12 catches for 103 yards, 86 yards on 3-for-4 passing) over the past four games. That pales in comparision to his production over Rutgers’ first six games, when he accounted for 41 percent of Rutgers’ rushing attack and 39 percent of its receiving yardage.

A hamstring injury suffered in the Syracuse loss two weeks ago has limited Sanu even more, and it’s a reason why the sophomore didn’t rush the ball in a game this past Saturday for the first time since the Wildcat became in vogue midway through last season.

“”It’s been real frustrating knowing you can’t help your team be that much better and do what we planned out to do,” Sanu said. “”When you get out there under the lights you get ready to make a play and your adreneline goes up, but when coach pulls you out you have to stay focused on the game and be the eyes of the receivers when you can’t help them out there.”

“”We have two practices under our belt and a game coming on Friday. I know our team is very excited about it and I know I am. It is an opportunity to play our last home game of the season at Rutgers Stadium so all good stuff.”

Looking ahead to Friday’s matchup against Big East-rival Louisville, Noonan added, “”We just have to play our defense, period.”

“”Get into the film room, prepare and get back to basics. It’s all the things we always say, but it’s true,” he offered. “”It’s about earning it. It’s about practicing better. That’s what we have to do. It’s about us executing our defense. That’s what it’s been every week. Why we don’t execute, it’s a different (reason) every week. But this week we’re just focusing on Louisville and executing our defense.”

Rutgers coach Greg Schiano, whose Scarlet Knights (4-6, 1-4) will play host to Louisville (5-6, 2-4) on Friday (11 a.m., ESPN2), said his defense needs to “”improve in every area because we just didn’t execute” against Cincinnati.

Eric LeGrand remains paralyzed from the spinal cord injury he suffered in Rutgers’ Oct. 16 game against Army, but the junior defensive tackle is making progress.

Word of just how much progress LeGrand is making came in the form of a press release from Rutgers on Tuesday afternoon.

LeGrand was removed from a ventilator this week, meaning he’s able to breathe on his own. And perhaps the bigger news — at least as far as his long-term prognosis is concerned — LeGrand’s C3-C4 vertabrae fracture was recently reclassified from complete injury to an incomplete spinal cord injury.

In a New Jersey Press Media interview last month, Dr. Andrew Hecht, the director of spine surgery at Department of Orthopedics at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, said LeGrand’s recovery was dependent on whether it’s an complete or incomplete injury.

“”A complete injury involves absence of motor or sensatory function,” Hecht said. “”If you have complete injury, the likelihood of obtaining meaningful function is 80 percent (to) get one level, or one root, back. Maybe 10 percent or so may get two levels back. But most people don’t get their motor function back in their legs or distally in the arms.”

Hecht described an incomplete injury as the “”sparing of motor or sensatory function along with the sparing of perirectal sensation.”

“”If he had sparing (below the waist) or other function,” Hecht added, “”that means no one can predict what’s going to happen.”

The LeGrand family thanked Rutgers fans for their continued support and well-wishes in the statement released by Rutgers.

“”We want to thank everyone for all of the love and support for Eric,” the LeGrand family stated. “”It has really been beneficial to his recovery. Please continue to keep Eric in your prayers.”

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